Industry news for the professional cartoonist
Original July 3rd post – This is a really late addition to our 2022 Departures list. Agnes by Tony Cochran has been in rerun status all this year, since January 1, 2023. Fans of the comic strip became aware of the lack of new material early this year and when “pschearer” inquired about the circumstances…
It wasn’t the first aviation comic strip – Tailspin Tommy (1928), Skyroads (1929, which had Zack Mosley art assist), Scorchy Smith (1930), and Brick Bradford (earlier in 1933) all beat Smilin’ Jack into newspapers – though it was the longest lasting and last of those to come out of The Adventurous Decade (Brick Bradford having…
By 1948 Frank Godwin (b. 1889) had spent a good 40 years as a respected and requested illustrator for newspapers, magazines, books, and advertisers. Beginning in 1924 (Vignettes of Life) he became an impressive presence on newspaper comics pages, creating a famous twelve year run illustrating Connie (1929-1941). After Connie he gave up the grind…
The original December 12, 2022 item: The Katzenjammer Kids first appeared December 12, 1897. Above: the first issue of The Katzenjammer Kids The comic strip was created by Rudolph Dirks and New York Journal editor Rudolph Block. Various cartoonists (Harold Knerr, Oscar Hitt, Doc Winner, Joe Musial, Mike Senich, Angelo DeCesare, Hy Eisman) continued it’s…
When last we checked in with Bud Fisher he had created the first successful daily newspaper comic strip* Mr. A. Mutt, which debuted on November 15, 1907 in the San Francisco Chronicle. The daily was an instant San Francisco treat and proved to be a great circulation booster for M. H. de Young‘s newspaper, which…
Today Michael Maslin corrects a couple misconceptions that have taken hold about Alan Dunn and the cartoons he did for The New Yorker: In my earliest days at The New Yorker it seemed to be a gospel truth that Alan Dunn was the most prolific New Yorker artist. I’ve long been fascinated by how such facts…
Today saw the Doodles Sunday page go to rerun following the death of cartoonist Chris Foote. Doodles began on Sunday October 19, 1986 as a kid’s activity/gag page titled Professor Doodles – Just For Kids Corner created by Steve Sack and Craig MacIntosh. From a Daily Cartoonist article last year: In an early (1987) interview…
Westerns had always been a part of American popular culture, so when radio began turning over news and lecture time to dramatic storytelling around 1929 Westerns were among the programs offered. Most, like Death Valley Days and Bobby Benson, were original to radio, some, like Rin Tin Tin, were adapted from other media. When…
When the Freckles and His Friends daily strip ended in 1971 Newspaper Enterprise Association supplied the first strip from September 20, 1915 for newspapers breaking the news to their readers. Which I guess is technically true, that was the first strip titled “Freckles and His Friends.” Merrill Blosser had only a few years of cartooning…
Virgil Partch’s Big George panel began on May 23, 1960. It last ran 30 years and one week ago on June 8, 1991: hat tip to Charles Brubaker for the last Big George panel That last panel appeared nearly seven years after Vip’s death, Partch being one of very few cartoonists who worked so far…
In 1905 twenty-year-old Harry Conway (Bud) Fisher left Chicago for San Francisco where he got a job working for de Young’s Chronicle newspaper. It seems his theatrical portraits began appearing in the paper in November of 1905, with his sports cartooning splash coming on November 15, 1905. His caricature of Bob Fitzsimmons, an aging, freckled,…
Archie Andrews first appeared 80 years ago in a couple comic books dated December 1941. promo from Top Notch Comics #22 and first Archie page from Pep Comics #22 The feature was an instant hit and before the next year was over Archie had his own comic magazine. But it would take five years…
This will be an amalgamation of a few subsets we have here: a First and Last entry, a Rarities post, and a Complete collection. On June 27, 1943 The New York Tribune syndicate distributed the first episode of Superwoman by already famed cartoonist Rea Irvin. The Sunday-only strip appeared in at least two newspapers –…
It’s Wednesday, the day set aside for Chef Peppi’s Cheap Thrills Cuisine – but no more. The last recipe on GoComics was January 27, 2021 (above); the contract was not renewed. If you are reading this soon after being posted the last couple entries are still up at the GoComics newspapers’ feeds (see The Oregonian)…
Smokey Bear, the anthropomorphic symbol of the United States Forest Service, was created during World War Two. Not long after that conflict ended Smokey was appearing in one column panel cartoons as public service announcements illustrated by Harry Rossoll. These advisories would run at least into the 1970s. For a few years during that run…